Talks, Lectures and Presentations

I often give talks at conferences and meetings around the world. This page is always incomplete and usually
out of date but offers an idea of the types of things I often talk about. I am always interested in speaking
to new audiences. Please don't hesitate to get in contact with me if you are interested
in having me talk at a conference.

I also present my academic work at academic seminars, workshops, and conferences give lectures and
classes. Please see my academic work page for details on these scholarly
presentations. I've tried to make sure that talks are not double-listed on these pages.

Advancing a Definition of Free Culture,
2008-05-05,
Sun's Community
One conference at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, California.
.

Liberating Network Services,
2008-05-05,
Sun's Community
One conference at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, California.
An updated version of the talk I gave at the FSF Members Meeting.[Show Description][Hide Description]

Laptop Liberation: One Laptop per Child and Free/Open Source Software,
2008-04-19,
Penguicon in Troy, MI.
This first half of this talk introduced the One
Laptop per Child Project and the XO-1 laptop. In this introduction, I focused on the published
principles and stated goals of the project and tried to draw connections between the software and hardware
design and development model and these goals. In the second half of the talk, I focused on the reasons
behind OLPC's stated commitment to free and open source software and argued for free software in Constructionist education projects and in
education and development work more generally.
(Slides: PDF, ODP Source | Notes: HTML, ReST)
[Show Description][Hide Description]

Laptop Liberation: One Laptop per Child and Free/Open Source Software,
2008-03-12,
Hampshire College in Amherst, MA.
This first half of this talk introduced the One
Laptop per Child Project and the XO-1 laptop. In this introduction, I focused on the published
principles and stated goals of the project and tried to draw connections between the software and hardware
design and development model and these goals. In the second half of the talk, I focused on the reasons
behind OLPC's stated commitment to free and open source software and argued for free software in Constructionist education projects and in
education and development work more generally.
(Slides: PDF, ODP Source
| Notes: HTML, ReST)
[Show Description][Hide Description]

Laptop Liberation: One Laptop per Child and Free/Open Source Software,
2008-01-08,
Nara Institute of Technology (NAIST) in Nara, Japan.
This first half of this talk introduced the One
Laptop per Child Project and the XO-1 laptop. In this introduction, I focused on the published
principles and stated goals of the project and tried to draw connections between the software and hardware
design and development model and these goals. In the second half of the talk, I focused on the reasons
behind OLPC's stated commitment to free and open source software and argued for free software in Constructionist education projects and in
education and development work more generally.
(Slides: PDF, ODP Source
| Notes: HTML, ReST)
[Show Description][Hide Description]

Hacker Culture,
2007-11-20,
CK13 in Novi Sad, Serbia.
I worked with my friends from mi2 in
Zagreb, Croatia to give a talk on a panel discussing hacker culture and geared toward a general audience.
The panel was framed by the System.hack() — an exhibition that mi2
was traveling with and presenting throughout the Balkans and which I helped write material for. On the
panel, I talked about why hacking (both the transgressive and wholly constructive forms) is essential to
society and to non-hackers.[Show Description][Hide Description]

Laptop Liberation: One Laptop per Child and Free/Open Source Software,
2007-11-16,
Cornell University Code Review in Ithaca, NY.
This first half of this talk introduced the One
Laptop per Child Project and the XO-1 laptop. In this introduction, I focused on the published
principles and stated goals of the project and tried to draw connections between the software and hardware
design and development model and these goals. In the second half of the talk, I focused on the reasons
behind OLPC's stated commitment to free and open source software and argued for free software in Constructionist education projects and in
education and development work more generally.
(Slides: PDF, ODP Source
| Notes: HTML, ReST)
[Show Description][Hide Description]

Debian Packaging for System Administrators,
2007-11-12,
SIPBClue Dump at MIT in
Cambridge, MA.

Free Software and Education (Keynote),
2007-10-09,
K-12 Open Minds Conference in
Indianapolis, Indiana.
This talk built on personal experience and work with the One Laptop per
Child program to make a strong case for the use of free and open source software in education.[Show Description][Hide Description]

Debian Derivatives Round Table 2007,
2007-06-22,
Debconf 7 in Edinburgh, Scotland.
I organized and moderated a round table discussion on issues and problems
related to derivative distributions. The discuss involved representatives of all of the major derivative
distributions present at Debconf.[Show Description][Hide Description]

Debian: A Force To Be Reckoned With,
2007-06-21,
Debconf 7 in Edinburgh, Scotland.
This talk offers a "Debian Themed" quick tour through the academic, legal,
and business worlds. It overs insight into what everyone outside of Debian is saying about, doing with, and
learning from the Debian project. In doing so, it hopes to give Debian participants some insight into
fields and areas that they are largely unfamiliar with (e.g., management, sociology, anthropology,
economics, computer supported collaborative work, etc.). It illuminates what others -- especially academics
-- find useful or inspiring about the project and to facilitate self-reflection and self-improvement within
Debian. It reflects on the impact that Debian has had in the world beyond the Debian project and, in
particular, in those areas that many Debian developers may not be familiar with.
(Slides: ODP, PDF | Notes: HTML, ReST)
[Show Description][Hide Description]

Advancing a Definition of Free Culture,
2007-06-16,
iCommons iSummit in Dubrovnik,
Croatia.
Another version of the free culture stump speech. It was given as part of a
panel on philosophy of free culture and the commons.
(Talk Notes: HTML, ReST)
[Show Description][Hide Description]

Examination of Wiki Process,
2007-06-07,
MIT Innovation Lab meeting at the MIT Faculty Club in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Most people have used Wikipedia and understand that it is contributed by
many people. In fact, each Wikipedia is the product of a long and complicated process. This talk walks to
the process that led to the creation of a large article and some of the policies, peoples, tools, and
venues that lie hidden below the surface of many Wikipedia articles.
(Notes: ReST, HTML)
[Show Description][Hide Description]

Debian/Ubuntu Packaging Essentials,
2007-02-16,
Google in New York City for The Ubucon NYC
2007.
In the afternoon, I ran a workshop on packaging essentials where
I walked participants through the creation of a Debian/Ubuntu package.[Show Description][Hide Description]

Information Freedom,
2006-04-28,
MIT's Center for Advanced Visual Studies in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
MIT's Center
for Advanced Visual Studies held a gathering with nine short talks under the title Come Together
on social change, social responsibility, technology, and activism. I was honored to give one of these talks;
the final talk was given by Noam Chomsky. In my talk, I tried to give an overview of the world of social
movements and projects trying to protect "information freedom." I have only a very rough set of notes.
(Rough Talk Notes:
HTML,
ReST)
[Show Description][Hide Description]

Software, Freedom, and the World Beyond Computer Programs,
2005-10-28,
Darklight Film Festival's annual symposium in Dublin, Ireland.
Aimed a non-technical audience, this talk begins by introducing intellectual
property and tries to describe the history of the current problems created by modern IP policy. It
continues by offering a rough classification of the types of "solutions" being offered and then goes into
some depth on the Free/Open Source Software model. I discuss the reasons Free Software has succeeded and
try to describe some of the benefits and limitations of applying its model to the production of other types
of creative works.
(Slides:
PDF,
Open Document Presentation |
Talk Notes:
HTML,
ReST)
[Show Description][Hide Description]

To Fork or Not To Fork: Lessons from Ubuntu and Debian,
2005-07-28,
What The Hack near Boxtel in The Netherlands.
I gave another version of the talk I gave at LinuxTag
and Libre Software Meeting on Ubuntu, Debian, and derivation. See the notes and slides below which were
nearly identical again.[Show Description][Hide Description]

To Fork or Not To Fork: Lessons from Ubuntu and Debian,
2005-07-06,
Libre Software Meeting in Dijon, France.
I gave a version of the talk I gave at LinuxTag several weeks before on the
process of building Ubuntu. See the notes and slides below which were nearly identical.[Show Description][Hide Description]

To Fork or Not To Fork: Lessons from Ubuntu and Debian,
2005-06-25,
LinuxTag in Karlsruhe, Germany.
This talk is based on my
essay of the same title and is aimed at technically oriented free software developers. It describes the
Ubuntu development process and some of the lessons that have been learned while building the distribution
as a derivation of Debian. It tries to be an Ubuntu talk that is more technical than the standard
"introduction to Ubuntu" and that is also not limited in appeal to only current or prospective Ubuntu
developers. Since I gave this talk several times, the slides and notes here are the version from the third
presentation.
(Slides:
HTML,
PDF,
OpenOffice Impress (Source) |
Talk Notes:
HTML,
ReST)
[Show Description][Hide Description]

Ubuntu Down Under,
2005-04-24 to 2005-04-30,
Sydney, Australia.
Ubuntu Down Under (UDU) was a one-week developer conference to
plan Ubuntu's Breezy Badger release. I coordinated the community track: one of four major
themed tracks at the conference. I also ran or helped run more than two dozen sessions — mostly on
community related issues. The sessions were small, usually comprising only a few people, and ended with the
creation of a specification to work toward completing in the next six months.
(Conference Wiki: link)
[Show Description][Hide Description]

Ubuntu and Debian: Balancing Forking and Collaboration,
2005-03-17,
Manizales, Colombia.
This talk centered on Ubuntu and its relationship to Debian and the process
of derivation and the difficult process of balancing forking and collaboration. This talk ended up being
more of an introduction to Ubuntu and to Debian and Debian derivation and I didn't really get to dig my
teeth into the key issues that the title might imply to the degree that I'd hoped. The talk was mostly a
combination of my talks Customizing Debian given at NYLUG and BaDoPi and Introducing
Ubuntu given at GULEV. The talk was given in English with simultaneous translation into
Spanish.
(Slides (English): HTML,
PDF,
Openoffice.org Impress |
Slides (Colombian Spanish):
HTML,
PDF,
Openoffice.org Impress |
Talk Notes:
HTML,
ReST)
[Show Description][Hide Description]

Ubuntu (A GNU/Linux Operating System): Past Present and Future,
2004-11-27,
Congreso GULEV at the World Trade
Center in Veracruz, Mexico.
This talk is a two hour introduction to Ubuntu — the concept, history,
current status and future. The talk was an invited keynote presentation at the Congreso GULEV. Other keynotes were given by Randall Schwartz, Jon
"Maddog" Hall, and Richard Stallman. The presentation was given in English and simultaneously translated
into Spanish.
(Talk Notes: HTML, ReST |
Slides: HTML, PDF, Openoffice.org Impress)
[Show Description][Hide Description]

Customizing Debian: Fork Yours With Debian GNU/Linux,
2004-11-17,
New York Linux User Group in New York City.
This two hour talk focused on the goals and techniques used by those
customizing Debian. It introduced Debian and gave an overview of the universe of Debian customizers. It
then broke down the idea of customizing into a number of logical pieces and, using the examples of
UserLinux, Ubuntu, and Debian-NP or Skolelinux (the internal "CDD" groups), walked the audience through the
nitty gritty of customization using in depth descriptions and code samples. The talk was given to the New
York Linux User Group meeting in the IBM Building in New York City.
(Announcement: link |
Talk Notes: HTML, ReST |
Slides: HTML, PDF, Openoffice.org Impress)
[Show Description][Hide Description]

Debian and Ubuntu: Philosophy and Technology,
2004-10-13,
New York GNU/Linux Beginners group Gnubies.
I presented a talk at the New York GNU/Linux Beginners group Gnubies that covered Debian
and Ubuntu. The month before the group had seen a talk by Sun. To
provide a contrast with this talk and at the request of the group's leader, my talk aimed to introduce the
principles behind Free Software first. After this, I described the way that Free Software philosophy is put
into practice in Debian along with an overview of the project and distribution — its strengths and
weaknesses. Finally, I introduced Ubuntu, a project that is both technically and philosophically inspired
and linked to Debian and that, for a number of reasons, may be a good choice for many beginners. The talk
was given at the IBM building in New York City.
(Talk Notes: HTML, ReST |
Ubuntu Screenshots: HTML, ReST)
[Show Description][Hide Description]

Werkleitz School of Common Property,
2004-08-27 through 2004-09-01,
Halle Volkspark in Halle, Germany.
With Alan Toner and Jamie King, I represented Mute Magazine and help teach a 5 day course to a group of students
— primarily artists — on issues of intellectual property and different methods of organized
resistance to an expansionist model of IP. The published description of the session read, "With the
increasing centrality of 'social labour' to capital economies, the popular notion of the Commons is drawn
radically into question. What can be the status of 'free' resources in an economy which has brought the
exploitation of unpaid co-operation and affect to its very core? Can 'free' really mean free 'as-in-libre'?
Can a Commons also be contestational? And if so, how do we set about producing it? Jamie King (Mute,
London), Alan Toner (Autonomedia, Rome) and Benjamin Mako Hill (Debian, Seattle) will host these five days
of structured discussions, followed by a presentation during the main festival." Our session, part of the
Werkleitz School of Common Property was held in Halle, Germany on August 27 - 31, 2004 preceding the Halle
Biennale.
(Program Notes (EN): link |
Program Notes (DE): link)
[Show Description][Hide Description]

Software in the Public Interest, Inc. Workshop,
2004-05-30,
Debconf4 in Porto Alegre, Brazil.
After the success of last year's SPI workshop, the Debconf organizers
invited me to give a second workshop on Software in the Public Interest,
Inc. I gave a talk to the group to introduce SPI and then facilitated a discussion where people listed
things that SPI has done well and things they would like to see it do, or do better, in the future. The
results were submitted to the SPI board and membership.
(Overview Slides: HTML,
DocBook XML Source |
Notes: PlainText |
Whiteboard (Feedback/Results): PlainText,
JPEG)
[Show Description][Hide Description]

Custom Debian Distribution are the Ultimate Last Step to Total World Dominations,
2004-05-31,
Debconf4 in Porto Alegre, Brazil.
This talk, delivered jointly with Enrico Zini, represented the work of more
than a dozen Debconf participants and several BOFs. I spoke last summarizing what was said before and
laying out the methods for future collaboration and work on Custom Debian Distributions.
(Outline: PlainText |
Proposal: PlainText)
[Show Description][Hide Description]

Freedom Week (Liberamente - Settimana delle Libertà),
2004-04-16 - 2004-04-22,
Siena, Florence, Milan, Turin, and Rome Italy.
This series of talks across Italy was organized by Hipatia, and FSF Europe and by local
universities and organization in each of the locales. While each local event invited additional local
speakers, the speakers that were flown in for the entire series included myself, Richard Stallman (FSF), Sergio Amadeu (Brazilian Government) and Diego Saravia
(Argentina/Hipatia). While I spoke on a number of different issues, I served mostly in the capacity of a
representative of the Debian project.[Show Description][Hide Description]

Debian-NP: Free Software in Civil Society,
2004-04-17,
Siena, Italy.
This talk was a formal presentation of Debian-NP history, philosophy, goals,
and a description of our success so far. It was given as part of Freedom Week.
(Slides: HTML , DocBook XML Source)
[Show Description][Hide Description]

Control, Collaboration and Creativity in Literature,
2004-04-19,
University of Milan in Milan, Italy.
As part of the event, Modelli Liberi Come L'Aira (Free Models: Like
the Air), I presented a piece on the role that control plays in the production of collaborative literature.
The talk was heavily based heavily off some of the other talks I've given as part of my collaborative literature project.
(Slides: HTML , DocBook XML Source)
[Show Description][Hide Description]

Participatory Collaboration: The Debian Model,
2004-04-21,
University of Turin in Turin, Italy.
This talk briefly introduces Debian and gives a brief overview of its
organizational model. It argues that Debian has succeeded because it's employed a more
participatory/democratic model for decision making than most propriety software products and more than many
other Free Software projects.It presents Debian as a compelling model for the production of better software
in a better way.
(Slides: HTML , Docbook XML
Source)
[Show Description][Hide Description]

WSIS? We Seize!,
2003-12-07 through 2003-12-13,
Geneva, Switzerland.
The World Summit on the Information
Society was a conference organized by the United Nations. In addition to attending the conference as a
delegate of CPSR, I took part in the organization and execution of the
counter/co-summit, WSIS? We Seize!, that was a gathering of free
software developers, tactical and independent media activists, P2P advocates, and many others. [Show Description][Hide Description]

Information Politics 101,
2003-12-09,
We Seize! in Geneva, Switzerland.
This session asked: What are the major issues in the emerging information
politics movement? While developing our understanding of the inequities of IP policymaking and law, should
we also develop a strategy and attitude for dealing with it? Speakers included: myself, Christine
Treguier (la FIL and Big Brother Awards France), Stefan Merten (Oekonux), Alan Toner (Autonomedia), Robin Gross (IP
Justice).[Show Description][Hide Description]

Making Custom Debian Bootable/Live CDs,
2003-12-11,
We Seize! in Geneva, Switzerland.
Working from Debian-Nonprofit as an example, I demonstrated how with only a
list of Debian packages, developers could create their own customized bootable Linux distribution on a CD
similar to Knoppix.[Show Description][Hide Description]

Debian-NP Launch and Q&A,
2003-12-11,
We Seize! in Geneva, Switzerland.
During a joint presentation with Jamie Love who was presenting the film Dying for Drugs I gave an
introduction to Debian-Nonprofit and Custom Debian Distributions and then facilitated a discussion. I
passed out newly pressed Debian-NP CDs to all attendees.[Show Description][Hide Description]

Making the Case for Free/Open Source Software in Non-Profit Organizations,
2003-11-06,
NTEN in Boston, Massachusetts.
Delivered at an NTEN (the Nonprofit
Technology Enterprise Network) conference, this talk introduced a panel on FOSS in the non-profit sector by
defining the important terms in a discussion of free and open source software and by covering the basic
advocacy points for non-profits.
(Slides: HTML , Docbook XML Source)
[Show Description][Hide Description]

Summer Source: Software Camp for NGOs,
2003-08-26 through 2003-09-06,
Vis, Croatia.
The conference was organized by the Amsterdam based Tactical Tech Collective and funded by a number of groups including
George Soros' Open Society Institute. As one of the conferences
facilitators, I was active in many of the conference events and activites. In particular, I helped
organize, present, and facilitate discussion in the following sessions: